[laughter] nascar fans favor obama. by about seven points. which is quite remarkable if you've ever spent, as i have, a weekend at a nascar track eating chicken fried steak. that is remarkable. so there are some very mixed pictures here of those constituencies. colin kahl served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the middle east from 2009 to 2011. he's currently a senior fellow at the center for new american security and a professor in the securities studies program at georgetown university. welcome, and my question to you is this: in light of events in egypt and libya, how can the administration defend itself response to the arab spring? >> well, you know, i think if you look back to the president's cairo speech in the summer of 2009, what he said was, you know, the united states had an interest, but a people of the region had an interest in moving towards more just, accountable and representative government. and we saw that movement, the demand for political change emerge in late 2010 start anything tunisia, spreading to egypt and